Newport County, state historical societies seek items to document life during coronavirus

Marcia Pobzeznik Daily News staff writer

Friday

Apr 24, 2020 at 2:16 PM

“The big idea behind this is in 50 years, in 100 years, what did we want people to understand about the experience?” said Marjory O’Toole, the executive director of the Little Compton Historical Society.

A statewide initiative by the Rhode Island Historical Society and Providence Public Library to collect items, photographs, art work, videos and writings from residents living through the COVID-19 pandemic has more than 100 items so far, including pictures of empty toilet paper aisles at stores, signs and posters about hand washing and social distancing and short essays by teens, one of whom wonders when it will be safe for her to go to the store again for more grape soda and Oreos.

Several pictures of people sitting at sewing machines making cloth masks are part of the “rapid response collecting” project that invites people from all backgrounds and all ages to take part.

“We’re hoping it’s a way for people to just channel some of this,” Becca Bender, film archivist and curator at the Rhode Island Historical Society, said of “the people’s” coronavirus experiences that are available to everyone almost instantly at www.ricovidarchive.org. There is a plan to get the site translated into multiple languages.

Local historical societies in Newport County plan to ask their members to contribute to the state archive, though some are planning to add some items to their local collections.

Ruth Taylor, executive director of the Newport Historical Society, said they may ask students to write about a day in their life now that they’re staying at home and distance learning.

Taylor recently recorded the first bell ringing during the coronavirus pandemic at the Colony House at Washington Square that will take place every Friday at noon. That, she said, could be added to the local archive at their building on Touro Street.

“Washington Square was completely empty. It really felt like a plague,” said Taylor who sat in her car and watched from a distance with her phone at the ready.

As it got closer to noon, when the bells would peel, more cars drove up and parked. A handful of people walked into Washington Square and stood, several feet apart, facing the Colony House and waiting for the bells to begin ringing.

“People really wanted to get together but they were super cautious,” said Taylor, who captured those moments on video.

Little Compton Historical Society Executive Director Marjory O’Toole started taking pictures of social distancing signs and handmade supportive signs around town several weeks ago when the signs started going up and yellow caution tape was unrolled and wrapped around playground equipment to keep children from using it.

“When schools closed, that was a wake up call that this was a big deal and we needed to pay attention,” said O’Toole, who has contributed several photographs to the state archive.

“The big idea behind this is in 50 years, in 100 years, what did we want people to understand about the experience?” said O’Toole.

Contact diaries and journals will be sought to document people’s individual experiences.

What is now being collected are “purposeful” items from the moment and immediately after, as opposed to accidental items found after the fact, said O’Toole.

Collections like this were done shortly after 9/11, the Boston Marathon bombings and the Black Lives Matter movement, said Bender.

The idea for the statewide collection of COVID-19 ephemera and experiences came about just three weeks ago, “pretty quickly after everybody went into lockdown,” said Bender. The first items were submitted a little more than a week ago.

“We put an initial period of six months on it, but I think it will go beyond that,” said Bender.

“The idea is what is the people’s experience of this?” Bender said, “from moments of more fear to moments when they’re more resigned and exhausted by it.”

Collecting is going on nationally and internationally.

“It becomes part of helping us all get through it,” she said of the ability to almost instantly share what is contributed.

Middletown Historical Society Archivist Mary Redgate said she’s been collecting newspaper articles and taking pictures of closed signs around town, and the big stone block barriers in the parking lots of the closed beaches.

“I haven’t decided yet how to best create a picture of the virus’ impact on our community. It will be months before we see the real long-term effect. It’s going to take a long time to determine what’s happened to us,” said Redgate.

What has amazed her, she said, is “all the unintended consequences” of the closings.

Taylor said it is “an intriguing moment” for sociologists and political scientists.

“People are realizing things about American society,” Taylor said of how many people “are living so close to the edge.”

Portsmouth’s Town Historian Jim Garman reported that the historical society’s events, like those of all other historical societies, “are pretty much on hold at this time.”

“I love lecturing on local Newport County history but I am in a pause as well. A good time to put some lectures together but no one to give them to,” Garman said.

“The world and Portsmouth and the Portsmouth Historical Society are on hold!” he said in an e-mail.

“The next big project,” Redgate said, “will be watching it come back,” and seeing how things change because of it.

mpobzeznik@NewportRI.com

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